Gordon Ramsay’s F Word (C4, 9pm); Nature Shock (Five, 8pm); Black Widow Granny? (BBC1, 10.35pm)

THE programme that’s not afraid to use the F-word – food – returns with a new challenge.

This time Gordon Ramsay launches a nationwide search to find the best independent restaurant in Britain.

The food show will seek out the highest quality food at affordable prices with the help of nominations from 10,000 restaurant-goers across the country.

Eighteen restaurants in nine categories (Italian, Indian, French, Chinese, Spanish, Thai, the Americas, British and the rest of the world) have made it into the series. Each week, the top two will face the challenge of cooking with Gordon in the F Word restaurant for 50 paying diners.

The best restaurants will compete for a place in the grand final, with the winning restaurant being crowned The F Word’s Best Local Restaurant It all sounds a bit complicated, but Ramsay will be aided in his quest by Janet Street-Porter. As well as helping him assess the nominated restaurants, she’ll be facing her biggest challenge yet.

In Janet’s Mixed Grill, she’ll attempt to rear not one but three different meats for the chefs to cook (cows, pigs and chickens) for the two best performing teams to cook and serve in the F Word restaurant in the series finale. She’ll also provide vegetables from her organic garden.

The first programme sees two Italian restaurants go head to head. Both sets of cooks face the challenge of preparing a three-course meal under Gordon’s watchful eye. But who will wow the F Word diners and go on to fight for the title of best local restaurant?

“For me, this will be the most important series because we are looking for Britain’s best local restaurant. It’s about discovering talent that we, as a nation, didn’t quite realise we had,” says Ramsay.

“The last year has been a horrific time for the industry across the board. When you look at how many restaurants have been closing in the past 18 months on the back of this recession, it’s a great shame.

“So we’re trying to discover the best local talent, and bring it into the F Word kitchen, where they’ll go up against each other. This isn’t about the top, fancy restaurants. These restaurants have to come in under £25-a-head.”

THE Nature Shock documentary tells how, more than 20 years ago, hundreds of people who lived by the banks of Lake Nyos, in north-west Cameroon, dropped dead without any obvious signs of injury or struggle.

The programme offers new theories on the tragedy. Father Anthony Bangsi, a missionary in the village of Subum, recalls the awful event. He was a witness to the aftermath of the terrifying incident that virtually wiped out an entire village.

Neither he nor any of the locals could explain what happened at Lake Nyos.

American lake expert George Kling was one of the first outsiders on the scene. There was some evidence to suggest a volcanic eruption under the lake was to blame for the incident. Bodies were burnt and people recalled smelling volcanic gases, such as sulphur, in the air.

However, Kling could find no proof of lava flows, fire fountains or any traces of volcanic gases.

IN Black Widow Granny? director Norman Hull sets out to discover the truth behind the headlines labeling US grandmother Betty Neumar the Black Widow.

In May last year, she was charged with hiring a hitman to kill her husband. Now charged with three counts of solicitation to commit first degree murder, there are suggestions that some of her other spouses met a grisly end at her hands.

Hull catches up with some of Betty’s children from her five marriages, and meets Al Gentry, who got her arrested for the murder of his brother in 1986.

He also meets the alleged femme fatale, who denies all murder charges, and presents her own explanation of events.